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Optional policy refinements are neutral until changed or enabled; verify them against the policy or payroll record.

hours/day
Turn this option on when accrual cap is required.
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Turn this option on when carryover checkpoint is required.
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Planned leave:

No planned future leave is included.

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PeriodOpeningEarnedUsedPlannedPolicy trimEndingCopy
Correct the inputs to produce the PTO ledger.
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Billable Hours Calculator Calculate billable hours from duration or clock entries with rounding and write-down rules, then review net value and realization warnings.
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A paid time off balance changes in steps, not as one annual total. Each pay period or month can add earned leave, subtract time already taken, apply scheduled leave, and enforce a cap or carryover rule. The order matters. PTO removed by a cap before a later vacation is not restored simply because the balance falls afterward.

Policies express earning in several ways. A fixed amount per pay period and a fixed monthly credit post the entered amount directly. An hourly policy multiplies eligible hours by an accrual rate. An annual allowance can be spread over the stated number of periods, which means 80 annual hours produce different per-period credits under biweekly and semimonthly payrolls.

Policy detailWhy it changes the result
Posting cadenceControls how often earned leave enters the balance.
Eligible hoursChanges accrual under a per-hour rule when overtime, unpaid time, or some paid hours are excluded.
Balance capCan remove newly earned PTO before later deductions reduce the bank.
Carryover checkpointCan trim the balance once at a year-end or policy reset.
Usage timingCan change the lowest balance even when total PTO used is unchanged.

Hours and days are interchangeable only when the policy supplies a workday length. An eight-hour day is common, but it is not universal. A mixed-unit projection can hide a shortfall or exaggerate a cap, so opening balance, accrual rate, usage, planned leave, cap, and carryover limit should all use the selected balance unit.

A positive ending balance can still conceal a temporary negative balance. This happens when leave is deducted early and later accrual repairs the bank. The period-by-period low is therefore as important as the final total when planning a request or reconciling payroll.

PTO entitlement, approval, forfeiture, and payout depend on the actual employer policy, contract, and jurisdiction. In the United States, federal wage law generally does not require vacation pay, though other laws, government contracts, collective agreements, and state rules may matter. The official payroll or human-resources record remains the source of truth.

How to Use This Tool:

Translate the written PTO policy into one balance unit, earning rule, and posting order before adding future leave.

  1. Choose Hours or Days and enter the Opening balance. If you switch units, confirm the workday-hours conversion against the policy.
  2. Select the Accrual method. Enter the fixed period or monthly credit, the per-eligible-hour rate and eligible hours, or the annual allowance and periods per year.
  3. Set the projection length and enter PTO already used in the range. Choose whether that historical usage belongs in the first period, is spread evenly, or belongs in the final period.
  4. Enable the Accrual cap or Carryover checkpoint only when the policy contains those rules. Enter the exact balance limit and checkpoint period.
  5. Add future leave with a period and amount. Check the ledger for the first negative balance, cap loss, carryover trim, or leave row moved to the end of a shorter projection.

Interpreting Results:

  • Ending balance is the amount after every projected accrual, usage deduction, planned leave entry, cap, and carryover trim.
  • Lowest balance is the strongest shortfall check. Any value below 0 receives a review warning even when later accrual makes the ending balance positive.
  • Cap loss means balance above the cap was removed immediately after accrual. Later usage does not restore that lost amount.
  • Carryover loss means the balance after that period's usage and planned leave exceeded the carryover limit at the selected checkpoint.
  • Display rounding does not change the running calculation. Compare unrounded payroll records when small discrepancies accumulate across many periods.

Technical Details:

PTO accrual is a repeated balance calculation with four earning paths and one fixed event order. Fixed-per-period and monthly methods use the entered rate directly. Per-hour accrual multiplies the rate by eligible hours. Annual allowance divides the allowance by periods per year.

Formula Core:

For period t, earned PTO is added first. An enabled balance cap is applied next, followed by historical usage and planned leave. Carryover is checked last and only in its checkpoint period.

Et=rate, rate × eligible hours, or annual allowance ÷ periods per year At=Bt-1+Et Ct=max(0,At-cap) Dt=At-Ct-Ut-Pt Bt=Dt-max(0,Dt-carryover limit)

B is ending balance, E earned PTO, C cap loss, U historical usage, and P planned leave. When the cap or carryover rule is off, its loss is 0. The final carryover expression applies only at the checkpoint; otherwise ending balance equals D.

Rule Core:

RuleExact behavior
Usage at firstAll entered historical usage is deducted in period 1.
Usage spread evenlyTotal historical usage is divided equally across every projected period.
Usage at endAll entered historical usage is deducted in the final period.
Cap boundaryLoss occurs only when balance after accrual is greater than the cap. Exact equality is retained.
Carryover boundaryLoss occurs only when post-deduction balance is greater than the limit at the checkpoint. Exact equality is retained.
Out-of-range planned leaveA leave row beyond the projection is moved to the final period and a warning is shown.
Checkpoint beyond rangeThe carryover checkpoint is moved to the final projected period.

Monthly projections with a valid start date receive calendar month labels. Other methods use numbered periods because a pay-period length is not inferred. Up to 260 projection periods and 50 planned-leave rows are accepted.

The running ledger keeps full precision. Display increments of 0.01, 0.05, 0.10, 0.25, 0.50, or 1 affect formatting only. Switching between hours and days converts balance amounts using the entered workday hours, but it does not change the number of periods or the policy's earning cadence.

Limitations:

This projection is an informational reconciliation aid, not legal, payroll, tax, or human-resources advice.

  • It models the order entered here, which may differ from the employer's actual posting, probation, waiting-period, proration, or service-tier rules.
  • It does not decide leave approval, protected-leave status, payout, forfeiture, borrowing, frontloading, or separation treatment.
  • State and local law, collective agreements, government-contract terms, and employer policy can impose different requirements.
  • Reconcile the result against the current handbook and official payroll ledger before acting on a shortfall or forfeiture concern.

Worked Examples:

Six fixed pay periods

An opening balance of 24 hours plus 3.08 hours in each of six periods earns 18.48 hours. If 8 hours already used are placed in the final period and no future leave, cap, or carryover rule is applied, the ending balance is 34.48 hours and the lowest balance remains the 24-hour opening amount.

Cap before later deductions

An opening balance of 9 hours with 3 hours earned per period and a 10-hour cap loses 2 hours in the first period and 3 in the second. The ledger ends at 10 hours, but total cap loss is 5 hours because each period checks the cap immediately after accrual.

Carryover after the checkpoint period

Starting with 8 days and earning 2 days monthly for two months produces 12 days before carryover. A 5-day limit at period 2 removes 7 days after that period's deductions, leaving an ending balance of 5 days.

References: